A Mild Defense of The Little Mermaid | Renegade Cut 

"By the time we meet Ariel, she has collected a grand total of 20 thingamabobs. Far more thingamabobs than anyone practically requires." One of the best sentences ever

I always really liked Eric, because like you say, he's uncomfortable with his grandiose depiction in the statue, is sensitive and funny... ...But also, when Cthulhu rises from the depths slinging lightning everywhere and turning the sea into a maelstrom, without having been brought up to speed on anything, or even suspecting his life was being invaded by witches and monsters from beneath the waves, he hops onto a ship and rams that shit right into the offending dark god like it's Tuesday for him. Eric is the best Disney prince.

I honestly never saw "the Little Mermaid" as necessarily endorsing marriage for women. It was simply about being attracted to another world that you never have seen anything about, having a sheltered upbringing

I don't know. This seems like a rather solid defense of the film. Adults rarely give kids the opportunity to take their time and properly develop relationships with their playmates. We refer to them as "friends" about 2 seconds after they meet, push them to hang out with complete strangers, and find any reluctance to socialize with each kids to be odd and off-putting. But when we see a kids' movie in which little or no time is spent developing the romance, somehow that's "problematic."

I've defended this film. Her dad destroying her stuff was the final push. She was already fascinated by the surface world before meeting Eric.

As a kid I was taught lessons by the three princesses of '89, '91 and '92. Ariel taught me that disabilities are not a visually shown and also learn from your mistakes. Belle taught it was okay to be intelligent, even if the local community says otherwise. Jasmine was treat about respecting your opposite gender because they are human too. Now I am a straight guy and always have been, but I have always enjoyed each film because I was not specifically told these messages from the film. I was all of four when I first saw Ariel sing "Part of your World" in 1989. If someone under the age of ten learns a life lesson from Disney without an an anvil being dropped, then the animation and writing teams did their job correctly.

What I find interesting is how Eric embodies the exact opposite of Triton's view of men. Triton calls them barbarians, monsters, incapable of any feeling. Eric is not a monster, he's pretty handsome, he's not a barbarian, showing humility when he sees the statue, and he is capable of feeling, risking his life to save Grimsby and his dog. At this point Ariel realised she was right about the human world and any reservations her father had were wrong. Also who wouldn't have at least a crush on a guy that brave, selfless, humble and handsome

I've always seen the movie this way. The *real* love story isn't between Ariel and Eric, but between Ariel and Triton. Although they do love each other, there is some obvious friction between them and it's through the consequences of both their mistakes-i.e. Ariel selling her soul and Triton nearly losing his daughter-that they learn the hard way how to see eye-to-eye. As a result, Triton learns to accept his daughter's wishes and Ariel learns what her father really means to her. That's why the last line in the movie is simply: "I love you, daddy."

The only truly bad thing Ariel ever was putting Flounder in danger coaxing him to go with her into the ship when he wanted to leave. As for Prince Eric, he did try to get to know Ariel, and he did say he wanted to marry for love as evident by saying he didn't marry another princess despite his whole kingdom wanting to see him get married

THANK YOU FOR DEFENDING MY PERSONAL FAVE

Is Ariel a good role model? Not really. Is Ariel a good, interesting protagonist character for a fantasy story? Most definitely. How you view her depends a lot on what you're primarily after here: lessons for children, or an entertaining story. Since this is a GENERAL AUDIENCE film, (i.e., a film intended to be enjoyed by both adults and children), and NOT an exclusively child-targeted film, her function was geared a lot more into making an entertaining and sympathetic protagonist than in instilling life lessons for little girls.

I think the reason why I think kindly of The Little Mermaid still is because it's about an outsider trying to find her way to a place she actually belongs. Yes, it's not the Hans Christian Anderson version but so what? It can still be good.

Ariel is an anthropologist who allowed a sugar daddy to pay for her flight

I was a kid in the target demographic when this movie came out. I didn't see her as prince-hungry, but rather wanting to explore the world. That was empowering to me.

"Bright young women, sick o' swimmin', ready to stand." ...My reading always saw Eric as a focalization of Ariel's general desire for something different, which broadly implies a narrative element that's hardly anti- women deciding their own paths. There's a lot of good intention in modern criticism of older Disney, but people don't seem to realize that this very conscious course correction of late surely contains its own problems that the future may not care for. We are as blind to those problems today as anyone in the Snow White era was to the problems then. Plus, consciously crafting narratives mostly as a corporate way of apologizing and still garnering tons of cash is in itself a problematic thing, although there is also a dimension of something very much needed in them.

When someone finally defends prince eric and u cry and dissolve into the wind bc ur mission is fulfilled

Something else that I think the movie gets across, intended or not, is how it's a metaphor for non-traditional relationships. Triton is a bigot, and Ariel is someone who sees the good in someone she's raised to hate and distrust. So take that as an bi-racial relationship, or someone of a different faith, whatever your parents disapproved of for whatever reason. Hans Christian Anderson adaptations can't help having queer coding either. (And obviously one can get into whether rich white characters as stand ins for social issues is actually progressive enough, I acknowledge that, but to me if the message is there than it's there.) Sometimes disobedience is the right thing to do. Love this movie and always will.

I love when my favorite film critics and theorists debunk bad take film criticism. This is going right next to Lindsey Ellis's Beauty and the Beast "Does Belle Have Stockholms Syndrome".

Even though romantic love takes up a large part of the film, TLM always struck me as a father-daughter relationship narrative as Triton effects the other characters much more than Eric. Yes, Triton destroys the physical manifestation of Ariel’s dreams in the grotto, but it’s his magic that allows her to stay in the human world. It’s worth noting that while the movie begins with Ariel’s absence, the last spoken dialogue in the movie is “I love you, daddy” as they part.

A lot of people see this movie so negatively but they haven't seen it in a while and don't take a second glance before they write it off. Ariel is tired of being told what she can and can't do. She is hungry for an exciting new world with no overbearing (but loving) father. She even almost backs out of the deal with Ursula because she would miss her father and sisters, but she knows she'll never be truly happy in the sea. And this is how she felt even before seeing Eric. And Eric isn't your average Disney prince either. He risks his life to save his dog from a burning, sinking ship. He is shown to be kind, considerate, and not even concerned with dating Ariel when he meets her on the beach. He's more worried about this shipwrecked, disabled girl wandering around alone and then it evolves. On the ship he tells his friend that he wants to explore the world and go on adventures, and that he wishes to find love in his own time, not be forced to marry. Everyone gets hung up on the fact that he falls in love with Ariel so quickly. First off, SHE SAVED HIS LIFE! Like, he was going to drown. Secondly, he had to know that anyone who could have saved him was a strong and capable swimmer because he was in open water and she swam him TO SHORE. Third, he was obsessed with her voie and musical ability, which makes sense since he played an instrument and back then knowing anything about music meant at least a semblance of an education. Lastly, he barely even got a glimpse of her shrouded in sunlight. He had no clue what she looked like even to the extent that he thought Vanessa could have been his dream girl. He didn't care about appearances, he fell in love with her voice, kindness, strength, and later personality. Are these characters perfect? No, Ariel was still naïve enough to think that getting a guy to fall in love in three days was realistic, and to trust a sea witch. But, they are definitely a step up from Snow White and her prince charming. Thank you to Renegade Cut for making a video I can show to people who don't understand why I can love this film when "Ariel sold her soul for a guy". No, she sold it for her freedom, including her freedom to date and marry the guy.

Excellent analysis, and pretty much exactly how I see the whole situation. I was also shocked how some people interpreted as Ariel as disobedient and whiny, even though she was fighting for what she believed in and stood in opposition against her father's prejudicial attitudes (I never interpreted Ariel as "whiny"). From a nostalgic and artistic standpoint, I love this film!

Dude, bonus points to you for being brave enough to sing in your video essay. Singing part of a Disney song, no less. Badass.

this is an excellent mild defense and re-examination of this movie. also i'm really liking the way you're ending your videos lately, with the clips playing during credits. Nice!

honestly, as a little girl, the little mermaid was my favorite disney movie, and i connected most with ariel. I saw myself in her, wanting to get away from a life she doesnt enjoy, and go somewhere better. As a kid who grew up in a controlling, abusive environment, it meant everything to me. When I was little, I just saw Eric as like,,, the cherry on top. He's just kind of a part of it. But Ariel loves everything about the human world above.

Let's invert the sexes of the movie. We get Eric as a Princess, immediately told by her butler that she needs to get married. A beautiful man from a faraway and mystical kingdom comes, literally saves her life, and slowly woos her into agreeing to a marriage. That sounds like a much more traditionally sexist Disney movie. I think all this is to say, that "The Little Mermaid" really did try to undo some of the gender assumptions they were already creating in previous films.

Weirdly enough, the perspective that Eric is a bad guy that is and that Ariel is throwing everything away for him is the perspective an overprotective father would have about his daughter in college.

How _The Lion King_ portrays the underclass and its treatment interests me. In spite of everything else about this portrayal, it also incidentally shows a scenario where this underclass is manipulated by a strongman into backing his coup. But while he sings of achieving power and glory, they sing of little more than being able to _eat._ Because they're starving.

Kids definitely pick up on more than what we give them credit for- anyone who had a dad who yelled a lot or was scared of their dad definitely noticed that the trigger for Ariel leaving was her father's violent outburst, not a boy. It's infuriating how many people are quick to blame Ariel being a dumb girl with a crush for her actions more than her violent raging father pushing her away

2:35 Leon Thomas sings... mind blown

Yeah. You know... in the original german version, Ariel didn't even sing "part of your world". She sang "ein Mensch zu sein" - witch means "to be human". I grew up with a Ariel, who had the dream to be human

It's always been clear to me that The Little Mermaid was made in reaction to 2nd wave feminism. I mean it's in the lyrics "Bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to stand". Even as a child I could see the difference between the core Princesses before her and the ones that came after. You can also see a test attempt in Black Cauldron's Princess Eilonwy.

Thank you! It always bothers me when people nowadays demonize and inaccurately portray these movies I loved when growing up.

But this should be titled "a mild defence of Disney's the little mermaid" as the Hans Christian Andersen original is so different, (a) the protagonist is brought up by her grandmother who tells her that to get a soul, she will have to fall in love then marry a human and share his soul as mermaids do not have souls (according to Hans Christian Andersen - read 19th century gay subtext as he was bisexual and in love with a man he couldn't be with because of the standards of the day) (b) after the mermaid rescues the prince, he believes he was rescued by a princess who he ends up having to marry (an arranged marriage) and the poor mermaid faces certain death as it was a condition that if she could not find love, she'd die (don't ask - probably a reflection on how unrequited love feels) but then her sisters goto the sea witch for help and get a dagger which the mermaid has to use to kill the prince (as letting his blood drip onto her feet will turn her back into a mermaid, but she won't die) but she can't bring herself to kill him so she becomes "seafoam" but then becomes a air maiden and lives a ghost like existence but she has a soul as air maids have souls.

Belle, Ariel and Jasmine for example pretty well embody 90´s feminism where as now days feminism is more of lucrative topic and embodies more variety of themes like social justice and there is intersection with various forms of social stratification such as gender, sexual orientation, age, religion etc. In the 90 and in the early 80´s (when Little Mermaid appeared) feminism was more about supporting women for making their own choices and things like women wanting to get married or having kids were not as frowned upon as they are today.

I'd say that the fact that it's made by Disney really prevents the story from shining as the coming of age story for a young woman that it could be. I'd like to also note that I don't believe they give an exact time frame between Triton giving Ariel legs and the marriage occurring. We really just assume that it's right away bc we aren't told otherwise and bc Eric's sham wedding happened overnight. I'd think that's actually an argument *for* a longer engagement period, given the fact he was literally being mind-controlled by an octopus witch which was then revealed to everyone.

I've long thought that one of the primary reasons Ariel was written to have an interest in the surface world was to avoid the message that you should give everything up for a man. As a child... I think it worked. I mean, I thought being a mermaid would be like, the best thing ever, and I didn't get why Ariel wanted to be human so badly, but it didn't occur to me to think it was just about Prince Eric. I'm actually much more interested in the romantic aspect of the film as an adult; as a child, I found Eric boring. But as an adult, with a better understanding of characterization? Oh, I totally ship him and Ariel; they're adorkable.

Glad someone finally pointed these things out. I was obsessed with The Little Mermaid from 2nd to 5th grade (where I then became obsessed with the Lion King). The one message I didn't internalize from this film is the idea that it promotes marriage to a cute boy as an escape or answer to being unfulfilled. It just made me want to go out and do what I wanted to do and if a decent person wants to take me on carriage rides as part of that, I didn't see that as a problem. Now there is some discussion of the fact that she loses her voice and some people interpret that to mean that women should give up their rights to speak politically and settle down in order to be happy. That applies an adult understanding of historical social culture to a kid's film that I don't think it should have to live up to. When I was a child, it didn't mean anything but that Ariel would have to sacrifice something important in order to get what she wanted, which necessarily meant that what she wanted was important to her. Her voice was what others in her society prized about her. She was the absent star of that performance in the beginning. Her singing ability made her special, but being special was less important than leading the life she really wanted to have. Maybe I'm crazy but making a decision to be true to yourself over conforming to expectations that grant you get extra privileges seems like an empowering message to me.

I do remember that I was scared shitless by Urusla, but then again I was about 2 or 3 years old.

I was the target age when this came out. Was I traumatised or rdicalised? No. I Just wanted to be a mermaid.

People try too hard to outsmart fairy tales.

Also, Eric wants Ariel to have a voice. He likes women who have voices. He's very kind to Ariel when she doesn't have a voice. But, I like the poetry of him liking a woman who has a voice (i.e. has opinions, thoughts, a sense of herself). Eric is depicted as a very charming man. I, randomly, rewatched The Little Mermaid and found it to be quite charming.

When I was a young girl, this was my absolute favorite Disney movie, but I don't think I ever got the impression of "Leave your family for a man" or even "a man will make you happy". So I would say this film might not even be promoting these "wrong messages" all that strongly, but perhaps it's the societal interpretation of this movie that can ruin someone's perception of this film. On the other hand, the biggest reason this movie was my favorite is because it has a mermaid as the protagonist. I was watching it for, perhaps, very "shallow" reasons; Ariel was never a role model to me, so that could be why I never saw any "message".

I hate it when people paint this movie out as having harmful messages when it in my opinion is empowering to women and girls. People wouldn’t say it was a bad thing that Aladdin or Hercules end up in relationships at the end of their movies. The men in Disney movies are also young and risk a lot for their endings as well.

Wow. That’s actually a solid character defense for Eric.

I once read an article that made comparisons between Belles journey in Beauty and the Beast and Howard Ashman, the lyricist who co-created the music for the film. Ashman was a gay man, who passed away from AIDS-related illness. The narrative he put forth in the movies most prominent musical numbers is one of not settling, and finding your own identity despite what your society wants you to be. I think the same can easily be said for the other Disney films Ashman contributed to, such as Aladdin and The Little Mermaid.

Oh thank god. I was starting to think I was the only one seeing it. To me it's always been story about a child chasing their dreams and a parent being against it- this pushes the child to make stupid reckless choices with dangerous consequences, but ultimately there was never anything wrong with the dream, just the person she approached to make it happen.

Not gonna lie, loved that you got swept up a bit by the song :)

I think some of these issues with the movie stem from the adaptation choices they made from the original Hans Christian Andersen story. In the original story, the Little Mermaid is presented as flawed and impetuous, making a huge mistake for love, and the mistake screws her over and leads to her suicide. Obviously a Disney movie is going to rework this story to have a happy ending, but in changing the story's outcome, they ultimately ended up making Ariel seem too naive and ditzy for agreeing to a deal with Ursula that is so obviously rigged against her, and then give her a happy ending that rewards her for making such a mistake.

Everyone tends to see things from their own perspective, but as a kid I admired Disney Princesses because they had dreams and desires and they were brave and stood up for what they wanted - excluding Snow and Aurora, of course. Although even Aurora was rather headstrong before she spent the rest of the movie asleep. At the same time, they were loving and filled with honesty and compassion. I think the only harm they do is being the ONLY thing little girls had to look up to. Variety is what's important. Anyway, I really enjoyed this. Both Ariel and Belle have always been strong characters to me - if suffering from the fact that they're 90 minute cartoons - and I really hate when people who clearly haven't seen the movies in forever try to tear them down. There's nothing wrong with some reasonable criticism, but ignoring entire parts of the narrative just to make a supposedly progressive point isn't helpful at all.

There was even a debate? :D I always found it pretty feminist, it was my second favourite one after Mulan. She was very curious, brave, desperate to be independent and free.

This is exactly what I've been saying anytime anyone claims Ariel is just "leaving everything behind for a prince". Thank you for putting together such a concise video that I can send to people now instead :)

I have to say, you convinced me to view Eric in a new light. Here I thought he came across as shallow, but as you said, he doesn't get much in the way of character development. Maybe he'll work with her on a way to stop catching and devouring her friends in the seaside kingdom that probably depends on fishing for food.

Lesson to parents from this film: Rejecting your child’s interests and passions pushes them away from you, sometimes causes them to run away and do something stupid. It worked out for Ariel in the end, but we all know teens who rebel against their parents in dangerously stupid ways.

Something about "Part of Your World" really resonates with me as a trans woman. Long before I knew I was trans, I felt a connection to Ariel wanting to reach out to a world forever denied her, to find words for things she cannot understand but wants to... and Triton's destruction of the grotto cut deep into my heart. As I've grown older, that curious feeling of connection still lingers, especially since I'm still in the closet. Sometimes films resonate with children in the most beautiful and unexpected ways, and we should never dismiss that.

As a child, I watched this movie constantly. It came out the year I turned 5 and it was my favourite movie. I remember watching it daily. For anyone who thought that it would effect girls growing up to cause them to give up their dreams/life for a man, personally, I can assure you it did not. Similarly to what Leon said, it made me identify more with being a bit of an outsider when it came to my family. I didn't necessarily like all the same things my parents/cousins/grandparents did, and I didn't find a man in my hometown that shared my dreams/likes/aspirations. I had to move 2 hours away to find said person and I married him. So we are technically from different worlds. It's hard to convince parents that your choices are different from what theirs would be, but sometimes it can work out for the better for everyone if they are willing to accept you as you are.

1:20 the sequels on the other hand......

The thing about an antropological theory is that it can be applied to anything. Lindsay Ellis has a huuuuge series regarding the Transformers movies, with at least three episodes concerning gender. If Elsa does get a girlfriend, it can be interpreted either as "gay people exist, and they can be powerful" or "all isolated feminist women are lesbians". You can say that Steven Universe not directly saying that everybody is queer shows that being queer is normal, or you fan cay that it's a cowardly attempt to talk about the subject without being ready to face the backlash. Mystique, Harley Queen and Maleficent can either show how women too can be as evil as a man (which is, no matter how it sounds, an important message to send), or how women are far more complex than we are initialy led to believe. Sleeping Beauty, in particular, is interesting because the villain and heroines are all middle aged women who use their talents to assert themselves, albeit in different ways. So, one can always give a counterpoint. If The Little Mermaid is subjected to that, well that is the most ordinary thing ever. Why do we keep blaming Ariel for not being the uttermost perfect role model ever? Poor girl may be naive, but she has had it rough ever since. We should see her first as a character and not a female role model. We can talk about that after we see her for what she is.

That footage in the credits it´s just perfect

I must have been about 11 when I saw TLM in theatres. When I got it on home video I watched it every day after getting home from school for at least several weeks. I'm pretty sure I could play the movie in my head if I wanted to. I identified with Ariel so much that I couldn't believe she was animated by a man, LOL! And I LOVED Eric, because he returned to a burning ship to save his dog, and he was a hopeless romantic waiting for true love, a perfect gentleman who would never take advantage of a vulnerable girl, a sensitive soul who consoles himself with music. I can't stand it when anyone criticizes Eric, so thanks for this vid!

Glad to know I’m not the only one who feels the urge to belt out Part of Your World every so often! 😁 Thanks again for another insightful video Leon, as someone who unabashedly loves The Little Mermaid and feels that Disney’s recent attempts to “rectify past sins” are not nearly as clever as the company thinks they are, I needed this in my life! ❤️

“The Little Mermaid potentially has one of the same problems as Fight Club” is not a thought I expected to have today.

Thank you for this!! the little mermaid is my favorite Disney one & ive always defended it. Another thing I add when defending The Little Mermaid is that Ariel wins her bargain with Ursula so Ursula has come on land? There’s a great scene where Eric is playing the song he heard Ariel sing on the flute & looking to sea then looking up at Ariel’s shadow in the castle & he throws his flute gesturing that he’s over the mystery girl & loves Ariel instead & at that moment Ursula mind controls him into loving her. It’s so coded as mind control too with like his eyes going dead & everything. It also raises the stakes in a great kids movie way for the third act.

Ariel was the first mainstream weeb.

You can even find proof of how Eric was only part of her decision after she is transformed: What's the first thing we see her doing as a human? She wakes up sees her feet, wiggles her toes and looks the most excited person on earth, as in: Baaahh, I can't believe it I have toes, that's so amazing!!! If this was only about Eric she wouldn't care about this at all, the legs would only be something she has to live with to get her man and that's not how she treats them at all. When she is having dinner with him, she doesn't sit there all evening just hanging on every word that is coming out of his lips- she gets distracted, takes a pipe out of Grimsbys hand and blows it, because- Look!- a snarfblatt!!! And a dinglehopper!! When she takes a kingdom tour with Eric 80% of the time she is not even looking at him but at all the wondrous things around her- she runs away from him to investigate some hand puppets, takes the reins away from him to ride the carriage herself, jumping over a small cliff, not worrying whether she is a handful. That's not what you do when you only care about the guy.Even earlier after arriving at the castle when she is taking a bubble bath, her face is full of excitement, happiness and wonder at how soapy bubbles look like and she experiment with them and how they float in the air. She isn't scanning her surroundings for Eric, waiting for him to help her and show her everything, even though she is in a completely new environment with only strangers around her, unable to speak and not being able to walk very well. In these moments it seems she is almost forgetting about him. She's not at all unable to enjoy herself alone, unable to enjoy her life without him. She looks just as happy and excited when she is alone because the life on land and all these new discoveries bring her as much joy as Eric does.

I love the movie. Ariel is one of my favorite Disney princesses.🙂

If you want more proof that it wasn't all about Eric at first and how relationships are bad when you rush into them, Triton is originally delighted to hear that Ariel has fallen in love. He only gets pissy and smashy when he finds out that the man she fell in love with is human.

My biggest gripe with The Little Mermaid is that Ariel lives happily ever after. In the H.C. Andersen story that it is based on, it ends much much worse. The original was really a cautionary tale. It ends poorly for Ariel, and to me, it reads like "hey people - DONT do like Ariel " She is put through torturous pain by walking on land, she effectively gives up much of her agency by going mute, and ends up not being able to court the prince. The prince marries somebody else, and the new royal couple lives happily ever after. Some of her peers give her a knife and encourage her to kill the prince, but she refuses. Saddened, she goes to sit on a rock by the sea, and eventually turns into seafoam.

Thank you!!!! I've been arguing this for so long!! but people don't listen, they insist on their pre concepts about this story.

Nice vid. This definitely aligns more with how I felt about the move as a kid and again as an adult. As a young girl who felt like her dad never let her do what she wanted that was a far stronger part of the story to me than anything with Prince Eric.

I saw The Little Mermaid when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and while it was my favorite movie for many years after it never made me feel like I needed to get with a man to have a happy, fulfilling life... It DID, however, make me desperately wish I was a mermaid... and that I'd maybe like to be a singer, someday. It just goes to show that you never know what a kid is going to take away from a movie, and that adults sometimes overthink these things. Not that the themes in kids' movies shouldn't be examined or that kids' movies shouldn't strive to have good messages (obviously they should), but adults need to remember that kids don't view movies through the same lens they do, and sometimes themes which an adult might find glaringly obvious will still go right over a kid's head.

This is my movie don’t care what anyone has to say! Thanks for the video.

i have argued this for years. eric was the catalyst for ariel seeking access to what she already yearned for (life out of the ocean and her fathers suppression)

Wow this is very well-thought-out. Please keep up the good work.

2:36 I love how no matter what we've all had to suppress the urge to belt out a Disney song :3

Omg I had holiday Ariel as a kid!

Next time you watch the movie, look at how very single scene with her before she mets Eric only has one point: She absolutely, totally, undyingly and reverently LOVES the human world. First thing she does in the movie? Exploring an old, shabby ship wreck in a shark infested, gloomy area just to find some human junk, which she treats like the most amazing treasure on earth. Second thing immediately following: After being chased out of the wreck by a shark, she still doesn't have had enough, but instead goes to the surface to ask Scuttle about everything he can tell her about all the stuff she has found. Third thing: After being reminded she is missing her father's concert she has to leave Scuttle and in the scene that immediately follows she is arguing with her father about having visited the surface AGAINST HIS WISHES, AGAIN. So even though she's not allowed to go there, and has been caught several times, she still goes there and risks arguing with her father because that's how important it is to her. Even though it does upset her and she leaves crying, so this is not because she doesn't care about him. 4th scene, immediately following the 4th: After the argument, Ariel has disappeared into a grotto which is stuffed with mountains of human junk, just showing how obsessed she is with all that and how much time she has spent collecting all this. Then, she sings part of that world. KEEP IN MIND: Part of THAT world (she's not singing ''your'', because she has not yet met Eric, or even knows of his existence, the only reason people keep calling it ''Part of your world'' is because the song is later sung again (reprise) once she has met Eric, this time she's singing ''your''. But the part of the song everyone is talking about when they reference it, the one in her grotto is actually ''Part of THAT world''). A few more things this song, just to really highlight how much she loves the human world: Remember how she asks ''how many wonders can one cavern hold?''- almost everything she has collected is junk and practically almost worthless, we would never pick it up if we found most of that stuff on a beach, yet she considers them wonders. And remember how she remember the names of all her stuff (even though it's clearly all wrong): gadgets, gizmos, whoosits, whatsits, thingamabobs, she went through all the trouble to learn all the names. And she knows the numbers too, at least of the thingamabobs, without counting: 20, that's how familiar she is with all that. It shows an extreme passion. And when she says, I want more, I wanna be where the people are- that alone makes it very clear she is not only interested in the things she collect, but she wants to be part of this world too. She expresses dislike for being a mermaid and her fins: ''Flipping your fins you don't get to far, legs are required for jumping, dancing'' and ''sick of swimming, ready to stand'' . And remember those two lines ''What would I give, if I could live out of these waters? WHAT WOULD I PAY to spend A DAY (A DAY!) warm on the sand. There is no doubt she already has a very deep obsession with the human world, and that she was willing to pay a big price for it already now. Anyway to wrap this up: This is immediately followed by Sebastian getting her out of her grotto to try and talk some sense into her and before is finished she has disappeared again TO THE SURFACE, to explore THE HUMAN FIREWORKS and the ship there. That's when she meets Eric. So literally every single scene, every single thing Ariel does before meeting Eric was obsessing over the human world. All just to make the point: She really, really, really, really, loves humans. The script practically hits you over the head with it and SOMEHOW people still think she only cared about Eric.

This was pretty refreshing, I hope you do more Defenses soon.

Omg, when you said "Thingamabobs" I couldn't stop smiling.

Thank you so much for this. Ariel was the first action princess, and the wonderful ones who followed owe much to her.

This is exactly right. Thank you for defending one of my favorite Disney movies!

I like to think Ariel and Eric dated for a good amount of time off screen between the transition of them kissing on the beach to them kissing at the wedding.

Agree on the little mermaid I have to disagree on the lion king. While Mufasa is played by James Earl Jones, the voicing us not stereotypically associated with being black and this impacts younger viewers while the recognisably "ethnic voices" are playing villains and rafiki who has an identifiable African accent ....is a monkey. This wouldn't be a problem in and of itself if all of the other "good guys" had a mix of accents and drawls but they all have standard non regional American or english (often interpreted as white) accents.

Hmm... This was not the video I was expecting, but I liked it!

I now want Leon to sing Part of Your World. He doesn’t *have* to sing the rest of the soundtrack but now 🎵we want mooooorrrreee🎵

Leon Thomas singing is all I needed today

2:36 hmm 🤔 a singalong Renegade Cut … I’m intrigued …

I went back and rewatched little mermaid a year or two ago. Honestly, the major concern that floated to the surface for me was that ariel does very little to advance her own story beyond signing herself into a dangerous faustian bargain, after which she depends heavily on men around her to help her get out of the mess (sebastian and flounder and the seagull more or less literally orchestrate a seduction, triton signs away his life for hers, eric pilots the ship to kill ursula). But you're right, this was just the first step away from the sleeping beauty era when heroines were noticeably even more passive, and viewed through that lens, i can see it as a stepping stone towards belle and anna and rapunzel. Thanks.

As a kid I got that Ariel had a genuine interest in the human world & Eric was a bonus. I've been frustrated that a lot of people misunderstood this movie.

I loved this movie as a young girl and as a woman today. Ariel was misguided yes but her decision was because her father didn't encourage or support her curiosity.

You know... I've been shitting on this movie for years. You really turned me around on it a little bit. Keep it up!

Personally, when I saw the Little Mermaid growing up, I saw it as a glimpse into taboo and forbidden romantic feelings. I kept thinking whenever I saw King Trident discover Ariel's secret love for Eric I was seeing something that was deeply personal and traumatic. In a way, it probably introduced me to elements of painfully emotional Greek tragedy when Trident destroyed the statue and left Ariel crying. It also got me thinking how messed up it would be to live a life where every thing you do, even innocent displays of emotion and attachment, could be punished just because they occur outside the confines of your society. Having to get help from creepy, manipulative sea monster hags just to fulfill those needs that society condemns is also pretty messed up. Considering how the film was very good at displaying the turbulent nature of taboo feelings and borderline tragic-moments, I'm surprised former Disney artists and animators haven't tried to use those strengths in adapting Greek tragedies.

The Cinema Therapy Channel covers Beauty and the Beast and how it does not portray Stockholm syndrome. It is an interesting watch as one of the presenters is a therapist and he breaks the film down.

This seems like a pretty great defense to me but the Little Mermaid is like my favorite movie so I've read it like this for years

No one is going to point out that she could write legibly during the contract scene and then when she loses her voice, this useful ability never shows up again? Just me?

DAMN IT I HAD WANTED TO MAKE THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG AAAAAAAAAAAAA Still, glad someone else is defending this movie

The little mermaid is my favorite Disney movie. I saw it when I was 10, and I still grew up to become a feminist. If I had a daughter I’ll definitely let her watch this amazing movie!

I’ve always loved The Little Mermaid as a little girl. I sing “Part of Your World” to my daughter almost everyday. It’s honestly such a great, relatable movie for a girl who wants to explore and discover new things. So many college aged girls want to go study abroad, if they met a hot guy who they liked while there - does that mean they only went abroad to find a boy?

I'm apathetic to the disney's mermaid. I prefer the 1975 movie. It's almost like the original tale and it's very sad but it made me think about what if love doesn't conquer all? How do we deal with that?

I like what you said about kids not picking on details. Because children especially don't pick up on any relationship messages. Relationships aren't part of their lives, it all goes over their heads, they don't care yet. Once they begin caring, they won't be watching fairytales anymore. If you wang to blame anything for bad messages, blame chick flick and sitcoms

There's a lot of striking parallels between Ariel's obsession with the surface world and the "weaboo phase" that many teenagers go through. Weaboos are obsessed with "the world of japan" and its culture, and like Ariel, practically enshrine the idea of being a part of it while glossing over the concept of it having any flaws. Looking back on The Little Mermaid, I think that it accidentally sends a harmful message to kids for more than just the myth of "love at first sight". It endorses weaboos (not just japan-weaboos, but that's the main one these days) pretty much getting a one-way plane ticket, packing nothing more than a backpack, and moving to a different country if they think is cool, without doing any serious research on it. But every country has its troubles, so when the blinders of "oh I'm here in the place I've been idealizing for so long, this is awesome" come off, it can be a very shocking and nasty experience.... and they didn't get a return trip ticket for if they changed their mind.